


Pre-eminent Among the Ghosts

by Megkips



Category: Fate/stay night (Visual Novel)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 11:41:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12035142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megkips/pseuds/Megkips
Summary: Sakura devours, and then dreams.





	Pre-eminent Among the Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [failsafe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/failsafe/gifts).



Dreams were never a pleasant thing for Sakura. They were inevitably cruel things, taking the form of either straight-up nightmares or else dreams of a pleasant future that should have been hers. The second type were always much worse, as Sakura woke up in her room at the Matou home, looked around wildly as if this part was the dream, only to have yet another cold reminder that no, it was cold, hard reality. Her father was a magus and there were Rules, he had given her away.

Tonight, the dream was different. Sakura found herself not in the Matou home or the Tohsaka household, but somewhere altogether different. It was a strange place, dark and cool, and cloud of despair hung over the air. A thick layer of dust lay on the ground, so thick that when Sakura turned around to see the way she had came, she could see her footprints in it. There were people in the distance or...she thought they were people. Maybe. They were dark shapes, details about them impossible to determine. In the foreground, though, was a chair, simply fashioned, and in it was the only person whose features she could make out.

She had met him once before, on the street coming home one late night. His bright blonde hair, his pale skin, everything about him was muted, save for his red eyes. Those pierced through the gloom, and when they alighted on her, Sakura immediately felt herself shrink. There was no kindness in those eyes, only judgement and anger.

"You," he said, and his voice was an authoritative tone that spoke to someone who was used to his word being law. "You could not even give me an acceptable replica of Ereshkigal's realm after all of this?"

That...that was not the question that Sakura had been expecting. Whoever Ereshkigal was in the first place. How did you even spell that name? Sakura opened her mouth to reply, but there was no time. The world around her changed, the gloom becoming expansive, the chair the westerner sat in becoming a golden throne with precious gemstones of ruby and emerald and lapis lazuli shining in the darkness. The man’s modern clothes had been replaced with strange ones in bright reds and bold blues, half of his chest exposed to the world. A queue of people appeared in front of him, the extent of which seemed to disappear into the gloom. How many were there? Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Sakura squinted, then accepted that she could not hope to count the number there. To the man’s right stood another, a person with bright green hair and features that seemed to morph and shift whenever Sakura looked. Both the blonde man and the one beside him looked slightly bored, especially as a shade stepped forward.

"Name," the one in the chair commanded. The name that followed was something Sakura didn't recognize. Neither did she recognize the the place they were from - Nippur - or their occupation - scribe to the imperial something-or-other - or anything else of the sort, until the man in the chair stood up.

"I am aware of your actions, Palil, scribe of Nippur. I, Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, was given the task to judge the dead by the Gods themselves, a task assigned to me on my death bed. As such, you may proceed to next gate of Irkalla, after you offer me one thing of meaning, either something on your person, or a memory from your life."

A small ring was given to the king, one that Sakura saw for only a moment before it was placed to the left side of Gilgamesh's throne. She began to distance herself from the king and the throne he sat on, trying to see what was on the other side of his impressive seat. What greeted her eyes was a pile that only the most eccentric collector could have. Fine clothing was mixed with clothes made of thick, rough fabric. Shoes abounded, as did little trinkets ranging from jewelry to rocks found in pockets to what looked like grain of some sort. The arrray was astounding, but the pile seemed too compact for the line of people that were waiting, never mind the number that must have already past through.

Gilgamesh's eyes moved from the endless line of people to the person beside him. "To imagine this is our eternity, Enkidu.”

The green-haired person's laugh was the brightest thing heard in this place. "But you have a treasury!” they said, gesturing to the left hand side of the throne. “Besides, you'll be restless no ma--"

Enkidu's voice cut out, and the world melted away, back, back to the gloom and the simple chair and Gilgamesh staring at Sakura with loathing in his eyes. "As I said," he chastised. "A poor version of Ereshkigal's realm. If you intend to devour more people, at least make it so they have lived interesting lives. The stories these people tell are endlessly dull, and none of their trinkets have any value. They’re mass produced pieces of garbage. My treasury is of a higher caliber."

Sakura stared blankly. "How am I devouring...?"

The red eyes blinked in surprise for a beat, and then a low laugh followed. The character of it was impossible to determine. It could be an indicator of cruel intentions. It could be dark amusement. It could be disbelief, and something in Sakura suspected it was the last one. "This farce," Gilgamesh said, as Sakura began to hear her morning alarm somewhere in the distance. "It only gets more and more ridiculous."

The alarm blared, and from darkness and gloom, Sakura found herself reaching for her alarm clock. Once it was off, she sat up in bed, scrubing at her eyes to try and wake up. They were bleary, and Sakura had trouble shaking it off.

"What a strange dream," she said to no one at all, once the world was in focus again. "Must be a side effect of everything else happening lately."

**Author's Note:**

> Hi Failsafe! Your prompts were all extremely excellent, but your prompts for Gilgamesh and Sakura in particular struck me with regards to Heaven's Feel. It drudged up a reminder of a particular additional Sumerian myth, [The Death of Gilgamesh](http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr1813.htm), and how supposedly the Gods assign him to be a judge of the dead. Given what happens to Gil in Heaven's Feel, it seemed like a potential jumping off point. I hope you enjoy it!


End file.
